TROCHILID.E. 103 



assiduously explore their stems in search of such 

 lurking insects as may be concealed in the bark. It 

 is said that spiders constitute the principal food of 

 many species of this group ; and the structure of 

 their bills seems admirably adapted for the capture 

 of prey of this description. To individualize by 

 name any particular country in South America in 

 which these birds are found is unnecessary^ for they 

 are generally distributed over its temperate and 

 hotter portions, but they are not to be met with 

 either very far north or very far south of the 

 equator; that is to say, their range is bounded 

 northwardly by Southern Mexico and southwardly 

 by Bolivia. Within these limits the high and the 

 low lands are alike tenanted by them ; it, however, is 

 in the equatorial regions that they are most nume- 

 rous, and there all, or nearly all, the genera have 

 representatives. In the colouring of their plumage 

 the sexes are alike. 



The Spotted Hermit (Grypus ncevius) is common in all 

 parts of the provmce of Santa Catherina in Brazil, but is 

 more frequently met with in woody situations than else- 

 where. Its flight is exceedingly noisy, very vigorous, and 

 capable of being sustained for a great length of time, the 

 bu*d rarely alighting. Its cry is so loud and piercing as 

 to be heard above everything else, while it flutters around 

 the various species of Orchids, from whence it derives its 

 principal sustenance. 



This Humming-bird builds a nest composed of tine 

 vegetable fibres woven together, so as to look like an open 

 network purse, the outer walls being so loosely made as 

 to permit the eggs and Iming to be visible : leaves, mosses, 

 and lichens are also woven in, and are packed rather 

 tightly under the eggs ; the edge, however, is always left 

 loose. Tliis nest is suspended at the end of a leaf, usually 

 that of a palm. 



